A fully extended limb has no potential energy of its own. But how are you defining deep? I consider "proper" to be knees bent to the point at which your knees obscure your toes from your own vision. I have students find the depth and width of their neutral bow and then sink down to the dimension of height I just described. Then I tell them to get used to the view from down there because "as long as your hands are up and the fight is on, this is as tall as you should ever be."

I think careful attention should be paid to all 3 dimensions of our stances during forms, but I especially hate seeing someone's height bob up and down during stance changes. If you aren't jumping, leaping, or hopping, your head shouldn't rise above the height of a proper neutral bow, and I think that doing the forms in extra low stances is a great way to condition the legs so that properly low stances aren't as taxing...the ol' swinging two bats methodology. Sparring allows for more freedom of personalized expression, in my opinion. I can't think of any advantage to having a shallow stance, but if somoene is having consistant success with it, whaddya gonna say? In the forms, however, we should all strive to look like shining examples of our basics in motion.

As for maneuvering... Lowering the center of gravity improves balance/stability, and you have to be poised to pounce in order to move with speed and power.

Last edited by DanPuleo on June 26th, 2012, 9:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Do you make sure your students keep those knees
bent during techniques and forms or do you opt for
higher stances with knees only slightly bent, how about
during sparring?

Do you feel that deep stances aid in footwork or detract from it and of course I want to know your reasons...

Those who have the background can you compare Kenpo footwork to Aikido footwork, pros and cons?

That the structure of the stance itself serves a purpose in self defense, limiting the angles of incidence available for your opponent to do damage from. Poorly formed stance. Poorly formed defense. That said I haven't experienced any deficiency in mobility keeping well formed stances. Offense is also served from this platform. Learn them, practice them, try to get back to them when the shtf.

I concur with your statements regarding stances to a degree, but what about the height changes during the execution of close kneel and wide kneel stances?

Do you have your students execute modified stances, or do you have them execute these stances as described by Mr. Parker in his Kenpo syllabus?

Sincerely,
Billy Lear

I think I said that your stature should never raise higher than the dimensions of a proper neutral bow. Wide kneels and close kneels should be done in the forms as the are defined in the basics, but it should be neutral bow - kneel - neutral bow. The kind of bobbing up and down I was referring to would be neutral bow - kneel - stand up straight for no good reason - neutral bow.

Dan Puleo

Last edited by DanPuleo on June 26th, 2012, 9:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Do you make sure your students keep those knees
bent during techniques and forms or do you opt for
higher stances with knees only slightly bent, how about
during sparring?

Do you feel that deep stances aid in footwork or detract from it and of course I want to know your reasons...

Those who have the background can you compare Kenpo footwork to Aikido footwork, pros and cons?

Ahh, the neutral bow stance. How sharp does that tool have to be at the expense of all the other tools in your Kenpo Tool Box?

Width and depth are more important than height. Height management is dictated by mobility concerns. Go ahead, show that attacker how awesome your NB is and I'll show you three good reasons to work on ALL of your stances.

If you have ever marched wearing a large drum or brass instrument then you know what it is to maintain your head level and smooth through your steps. Heel to Toe forward, Toe to Heel backwards.

Okay, okay, go to the closest clothes line and adjust it so that you are looking directly at it, now drop down to your NB and do your step throughs down the line so that your head does not touch the line. What the hell have you accomplished?

Now do the same thing with kicks, ROUNDHOUSE KICKS. Good freakin' luck!